Newton was speaking at an event in Cannes on Tuesday.
Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Thandie Newton has said she had to “have a big swallow of resentment” when she found out how much more her male co-stars earned on shows such as HBO’s Westworld.

The actor, who also appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story, said recent campaigns around gender equality in the TV and film industries were starting to make a difference.

“As a result of the #TimesUp campaign, HBO for the first time has made women and men in lead role positions [equally paid],” she said. “I’m one of the actresses that benefited.”

She said she was shocked by the pay rise received as a result.

“When I first discovered how much they were offering it made me realise, ‘Oh my God, men have been paid so much more.’ I had to have a big swallow of resentment. I gave it half an hour and then felt grateful. Every year I go into a new production or a new season of Westworld and I don’t think to ask for more, I just feel so grateful to be working. But we need to expect more for ourselves.”

This year it was revealed the producers of Netflix’s The Crown paid more money to the actor Matt Smith for his supporting role as the Duke of Edinburgh than to his co-star Claire Foy, who played the Queen. The subsequent outcry led many companies to change their policies.

Speaking to an audience at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Newton urged women to stand up and demand equal pay. “We need pressure, we need to disrupt, it’s part of change and growth,” she said.

The actor, whose mother is from Zimbabwe, said she often felt like an outsider while growing up as a mixed-race child in Cornwall and said she was using her influence to make the film industry a more welcoming place.

“It’s so important that I walk on to a set and see others like me,” she said. “If I walk on to a set and don’t see representation of a world that I live in, then I will make a change and I will talk to producers and say: ‘No, no, no.’ It’s not just about the people you see in front of the camera. I use my authority to do that. It’s a positive and the results are astounding.”

Q&A

What is an inclusion rider?

An inclusion rider is a clause that an actor can insist be inserted in their contract that requires cast and crew on a film to meet a certain level of diversity. It was first suggested by academic Stacy Smith as a way to overcome entrenched employment practices in the film industry. The concept entered the public arena when Frances McDormand mentioned the phrase during her acceptance speech at the 2018 Oscars, for the best actress award for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

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Newton was speaking alongside the British Vogue editor, Edward Enninful, who said he was committed to making his magazine more diverse, following accusations the publication had been run by a “posh cabal” under his predecessor Alexandra Shulman.

“Previously to work at a place like Vogue you have to have a certain kind of background,” he said, adding the magazine had gone from “strength to strength” since broadening its hiring process to target candidates from “inner cities”.